This is the three-bed aquaponic system on display in the lobby of The Aquaponic Source, 1860 Lefthand Circle, Suite E. A grand opening is scheduled from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday. (Lewis Geyer/Times-Call)
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LEWIS GEYER
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LONGMONT -- Sylvia Bernstein is an expert in what's called home-based, soil-less gardening. She also likes to eat healthy food.

Her company, The Aquaponic Source, pairs those two interests. One of the earliest employees of Aerogrow, a Boulder company that uses a pump system and an aerator to grow plants in water, Bernstein and her husband, Alan, founded The Aquaponic Source a little more than three years ago in their Boulder basement.

They had been an online-only business until a couple weeks ago, when they opened their first storefront retail location in Longmont at 1860 Lefthand Circle. The 7,600-square-foot space gives them room to not only continue serving their online customers, but now the public can walk-in, shop for kits and parts and tools to teach them more about aquaponics, and have face-to-face conversations with Bernstein and her staff.

The Aquaponic Source will also be offering classes, starting in early November, Bernstein said.

Aquaponics is a system of growing herbs and vegetables using fish waste to produce the plant food. A fish tank is connected to at least two grow beds -- 3 feet by 3 feet is one size The Aquaponic Source offers -- and the waste from the fish travels into the beds where it is broken down into plant food by friendly bacteria. The system requires a balance between the right amount of plants and the right number of fish.

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It's a completely organic system, Bernstein said, and it produces not only fresh veggies for your diet but also fresh fish.

"For a lot of people that got into aquaponics, including me, it's about growing organic produce and tying it into growing an organic protein source," said Bernstein.

In the lobby of her store is an example of one three-bed aquaponic system. One grow bed has a Styrofoam raft that holds the plants, and the other two use a "grow media," which are rounded, clay-like pebbles the plants sit in.

"It's completely inert, it's lightweight, and it's very porous," Bernstein said of the grow media. "So it will hold water and air and bacteria, and aquaponics is all about beneficial bacteria."

The type of grow bed to use depends on what type of veggies you want to grow, she said.

"(Styrofoam is best) for growing lettuce and greens," she said. "You can't beat a raft system for growing lettuce and greens."

As for the fish, any freshwater variety will do, Bernstein said, but she uses tilapia.

"Tilapia is (my preference) for sure," she said. "Tilapia is super-easy to raise. ... And they grow really fast. They go from fingerling to plate-size in about a year. And they reproduce readily in captivity."

Bernstein's roots in soil-less gardening date back about a decade. She prefers aquaponics over hydroponics, she said, because hydroponics uses chemicals. In aquaponics, the bacteria do the dirty work of breaking down the fish waste into plant food.

In 2011, Bernstein came out with "Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-by-Step Guide to Growing Fish and Vegetables Together," which she claims is the best-selling aquaponic book in the U.S. She is also the founder of The Aquaponics Association, according to her company's website.

The systems her company sells are not inexpensive. The website lists a three-bed system for about $1,500 and a six-bed system for about $4,800.

But many of her customers build their own systems, she said. In tracking her company's customers over the past three-plus years, she said they tend to be, on average, male, around 35 to 50, and often, engineers. The "DIY types," she calls them.

"A lot of these guys really want to do it themselves," Bernstein said, which is why her retail store stocks parts people can use to make their own systems.

Aside from a retail showroom and a huge warehouse, the new space has other benefits, she said. An office will be converted to a classroom to teach those new to aquaponics and those wanting to learn more advanced methods. Another room will be used for research and development. Three identical systems will be set up, and products made by other companies -- algae eradicators or compost materials, for example -- will be tested, and if found beneficial The Aquaponic Source will endorse and sell them. Her goal from the beginning has been for her business to be the number one source for aquaponics supplies and knowledge in the country, Bernstein said.

One product her company is testing now is a small table-top aquaponics system, ideally sized for someone living in an apartment. A 10-gallon fish tank is home to a school of angel fish that provide the waste, and above the tank is a media bed sitting under a grow light. A healthy head of bright-green lettuce was growing out of the bed last week.

The Aquaponic Source employs nine people, most of them full-time. They include a civil engineer from Australia, an aeronautical engineer who used to work at Frontier, an aerogardening expert and Robbie Vinson, who used to run his own plumbing company.

Some diverse backgrounds, but what they all have in common is a love for aquaponics, which Vinson said he first heard about when he was in the Bahamas.

He's glad he no longer has to have the cars moved out of the Bernstein's garage when he needs a work space to design a new system, he said.

"It's incredible, the room we have to do everything we do, with development and all that," Vinson said. "It's just amazing, the space."

Bernstein said they had looked at several communities for their retail location, and couldn't be happier with where they ended up, with a huge warehouse for shipping and a retail spot easily accessible to the public.

"There was not the perfect space in Boulder -- this is the perfect space," she said. "And the other thing that came into play is that this is really central to our employees."

A grand opening at The Aquaponic Source will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday.

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